Brits have £16bn worth of digital media stored on hard drives

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A new study from Orange shows that collectively, us Brits have around £16 billion worth of digital media and software stored on our computer hard drives. That includes music, photos, movies, games and other software.

That figure translates into an average of £350 per person, of which £180 is music, £110 is software, and £50 is films.

20% of the population legally download music on a daily basis, whilst 4% legally download movies. Interestingly, and unsurprisingly, the survey also suggests that 1 in 20 people who download store the equivalent of £500 worth of music content on their computers – that implies illegal downloads.

The rise in broadband with large or unlimited monthly transfer quotas has led to a rise in downloading of digital material. However, 5% of those surveyed said that they couldn’t download everything that they wanted to because of limits placed on their broadband.

As well as the content that can have a monetary value attributed to it, 38% of Britons also store personalised content, including home photos and videos, and email messages.

Unsurprisingly given that Orange broadband carried out the survey, they were quick to point out that a key factor to look for when choosing broadband is unlimited bandwidth. No mention of users spending the money they’ve saved (buying digital instead of hard copies) on a sensible backup strategy, though.